


Tremble Through

by Kate_Reid



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, kinda sorta trailer trash?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 20:34:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21142796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kate_Reid/pseuds/Kate_Reid
Summary: Ben wonders what runs through his veins.





	Tremble Through

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flawless_Sorcerer_Supreme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flawless_Sorcerer_Supreme/gifts), [WinglessOne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinglessOne/gifts), [situation_normal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/situation_normal/gifts).

> All hail my reading team!
> 
> Please enjoy this wonderful graphic created by [flawless_sorcerer_supreme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flawless_Sorcerer_Supreme)

He rarely thought too much about the _way_ everything worked. There were too many other concerns, especially _now_.

But Ben was taught a long time ago--slowly, carefully, and painstakingly by his Uncle Luke. 

*******

The Force, Luke said, was all around--over and under and inside and outside every single living thing in the galaxy. The Force, Luke said, held the universe together. The Force, Luke said, lived in Ben in a special way.

Five-year-old Ben, for his part, was a touch concerned that the all-encompassing life-energy had taken up a special residence in his little body. He wasn’t sure how he could contain it--what if he tripped? Would it all spill out like his juice had when he’d stumbled over a tree root? Was that why his mother had scolded him for running with his cup? 

Clearly, thought Ben solemnly, he must conduct himself with more care. If the Force thought he was special, maybe he shouldn’t run so much? Or climb things? Or check out too many things that looked interesting?

Well. Evidently, in Leia’s mind, a suddenly-sedate Ben warranted a discussion. He wasn’t exactly sure what his mother had quietly spoken to his uncle about. However, a closed door and a vague invitation to go play with Uncle Chewie were enough. 

Soon after that mysterious conversation, there was another sit-down with Uncle Luke. There was an explanation of things called midichlorians. Apparently, these were tiny things that ran all through Ben, in his blood. 

There were many questions. 

Yes, his blood was sort of like a little superspaceway through which a lot of ships were running. No, they weren’t racing, they were all just doing their part to keep his body working as it should. Yes, all of them--to make sure he could do well in his lessons as well as have fun playing. No, not everyone had all of the same little ships--not everyone had midichlorians like Ben. The midichlorians were where the Force lived in him. Yes, Uncle Luke had midichlorians, too. So did Ben’s mother. Ben’s father did not, but Ben’s father had other things that made him special.

Five-year-old Ben supposed he understood. His blood moved his heart, and with it, his body and mind.

*******

Kylo Ren had unparalleled access to information--from cutting-edge First Order research on biological efficiency to Imperial archives detailing questionable experiments on living beings to Old Republic studies of genetics.

He was intelligent enough to understand most of the things he looked up and resourceful enough to find supplemental reading to answer any questions he had. Time had gone on. Knowledge had evolved. 

There was research, there were experiments, there were studies. 

But Ben’s mind kept bringing him back to his uncle’s explanation, even as he knew it had been simplified and calibrated to a child’s understanding. 

It was his blood. The Force lived in his blood. So, it followed that the Force also lived in the blood of those who had the same power he did.

More to the point, the Force lived in _her _blood.

At their battle on Starkiller, his blood flowed arrogantly through his veins--he was the heir to a galactic legacy; she was a nobody who came from nothing.

His blood had already been streaming from him when they met again in the snowy wood. He’d done nothing to stanch the flow from the wound inflicted by Chewbacca--a man who was family but not _blood_.

She was whole. Her skin had not been pierced; her veins had not been tapped. But he’d felt her blood, even when he couldn’t _see_ it. 

When she let the Force flow through her--he’d had to pause and watch her face. Her blood _sang_ to him. Glorious potential, beautiful possibility, all in the unexpected package of a woman as improbable as a lush bloom in the midst of a desert.

And while he was paralyzed by her power, she’d drawn his blood, sliced him with the saber whose very energy he felt in his veins, and left him lying in the ruins of a dying planet.

*******

He woke, over and over. The dream wouldn’t leave him alone. She was as beautiful as ever. As always, something beyond her beauty called to him. It was her blood, he knew it, just as he knew that it was his own blood that wouldn’t stop disturbing his sleep.

His reaction to her dream-appearance, however, couldn’t be attributed entirely to those microscopic things that coursed through him and ran the universe.

Dark-hooded, somber-faced, eyes lit with something he’d not yet seen in them, she snapped a double red blade together and advanced toward him.

The blood--the blood that moved him, that carried parts of the energy that bound the galaxy, that held his power--mingled with hers to cover the ground every time.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This was written after the TROS teaser was released weeks ago; I decided to hold onto it because I'd sort of descended into self-loathing for creating trailer trash. But after seeing the final trailer and not being jossed too bad, I decided to chance it.
> 
> Inspired by A-ha's song, "The Blood That Moves The Body."
> 
> [Come say hi!](https://linktr.ee/stainlessstyled)


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